Get Going: How To Increase Your Business’s Efficiency

One of the best ways to save money and increase productivity is to start thinking about how you can improve your company’s efficiency. If you’re wondering what that means exactly, look no further.

If your meetings are starting to drag on and projects seem to take far longer than you think they should, that means that your company simply isn’t running as efficiently as it should. Here are a few simple things that you can do to improve that…

First of all, if you feel that your company isn’t as efficient as it could be, start to figure out where exactly you’re wasting time. Chances are, you’re having far too many unnecessary meetings.

A lot of the time, these meetings tend to drag on longer than they should, meaning that work gets interrupted, phone calls get ignored, emails don’t get answered, and staff are often forced to sit through items on the agenda that simply don’t even apply to them.

One meeting every morning that lasts strictly ten minutes is a good idea, but other than that, consider just how necessary your meetings really are, and start to cut back on them. You could also have your meetings standing up instead of sitting down – people tend to get to the point much more quickly then.

You might think that sending emails or instant messages is a good way of communicating with people across the office but the truth is that it really isn’t as efficient as you might believe. A lot of the time, messages go unanswered for a while, or there are a lot of pleasantries going on, which means that it takes a long time to get your point across.

Instead, it might just be a whole lot quicker to walk across the office and talk to your colleague instead, or to pick up your phone and call them.

Actually speaking is a lot easier than writing down your points in an email – although you should bear in mind that it’s a good idea to summarize your phone or face to face conversations afterwards in an email.

Create A Culture Of Communication

It’s important that you create a culture of communication in your company so that no one feels worried about coming to you with questions or queries, meaning that you can solve any problems that might arise much more quickly and easily.

If someone’s struggling alone to figure something out, chances are it’ll take them a lot longer than it would if they feel comfortable and happy asking someone else for some help or some input. Working together and collectively means that people get stuff done more quickly as they’re able to pool their skills and insights.

It’s important that you start to figure out what your own strengths and weaknesses are, both personally and as a company. Let’s face it, even though we’d like to be, no one’s absolutely perfect – and if you know what your weaknesses are, or the areas that aren’t your expertise, then you can delegate them to other people who might just do a better job.

For instance, you don’t have to figure out packaging solutions yourself – look online at sites like https://www.clsmith.com/packaging-solutions/ibc/ which can help you. Likewise, if you don’t really enjoy technology then you can always hire someone else to set up your site so that you don’t have to worry too much about it yourself. Remember to focus on what you’re good at and direct all of your energy at that.

If you never get any feedback, then it’s pretty much impossible to know exactly how you’re doing, which means that you should strive to give as much feedback as possible to the people you’re working with – and it’s even more important to give positive feedback than constructive criticism, as people should feel confident about the good quality work they’re doing as well as focusing on slip ups that they can work on improving in the future.

It’s much easier to work efficiently if you’re confident that you’re doing the right thing.

Update Your Technology

There’s very little that’s more agonizingly frustrating than a computer that isn’t working properly. Whether you’ve got old internet that runs at a ridiculously slow pace or simply an old desk top computer that keeps freezing and deleting your work, a poor quality PC or Mac can seriously ruin the day of anyone who’s using them.

If your colleagues are having IT and computer problems, it’s time to sort them out. You may not be able to do it yourself, so you can always hire an IT firm to come in and fix the computers along with setting up virus protection software. Good technology should be a priority for you, as it enables people to do their jobs much more easily and quickly – and in a much better mood.

Learning how to prioritise is an incredibly important thing to do at work. A lot of people tend to multitask, and although this is a valuable skill, it isn’t necessarily the best way to get work done quickly and efficiently – it tends to mean that you do part of ten things instead of actually finishing one thing.

Make a list of what exactly you have to do each day along with deadlines so that you can prioritise them and do them in order. That means that you’ll know exactly what you’re doing when, and that you’ll be able to set yourself goals throughout the day and keep on target.

Set Achievable Goals

Finally, make sure that your employees know what’s expected of them. All goals that they are told to reach should be fully attainable – it’s terrible for morale if people have goals that they simply can’t get to. Of course, not everyone will achieve their goal every day – it shouldn’t be too easy either! Make sure that when people achieve their goals they get rewards, whether that’s a team night out or a bag of chocolate every now and then.